


The Murderous Ghost of Aikmann Asylum

by reeby10



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Asylums, Buzzfeed Unsolved Supernatural, Demon Shane Madej, Episode Style, Established Relationship, Ghosts, Horror, Injured Ryan Bergara, M/M, Minor Injuries, haunted locations, killer ghosts, or at least the filming thereof
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:06:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25410598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeby10/pseuds/reeby10
Summary: “We’re here at Aikmann Asylum in Maine, which closed down over sixty years ago. Among the many patients to grace its doors, it was home to several serial killers who were placed here when they were decided to be not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.”
Relationships: Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej
Comments: 10
Kudos: 186
Collections: Multifandom Horror Exchange (2020)





	The Murderous Ghost of Aikmann Asylum

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Impala_Chick](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Impala_Chick/gifts).



> 24 hours before the due date, I decided the fic I was struggling to finish just wasn't going to work for this exchange and I scrapped it for something different. I think the new one is exponentially better!! I hope you enjoy it, Impala_Chick :)

“We’re here at Aikmann Asylum in Maine, which closed down over sixty years ago,” Ryan said as they walked up the drive. It was a chilly spring day, just a few hours from sundown. “Among the many patients to grace its doors, it was home to several serial killers who were placed here when they were decided to be not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.”

“They still definitely killed a lot of people though,” Shane said from beside him.

“Oh yeah, definitely. They even killed quite a few people right here.”

“I can see their rehabilitation went really well, then,” Shane said with a laugh, shaking his head. “As asylums were known to do, I guess.”

Ryan smiled. “Yeah, they weren’t really great at doing what they were supposed to do,” he said. “Especially around the turn of the century, when one of the worst serial killers in the state, Harbin McSwinton, was killed here.”

“Was he executed?” Shane asked.

“Nope,” Ryan replied, popping the p just to see Shane roll his eyes in fond annoyance. “McSwinton was actually killed by a couple of the other patients. After he himself murdered two of the nurses.”

Shane let out a whistle, and Ryan nodded. They stopped just in front of the front doors, dreary and gray in that same look they’d seen at practically every other defunct asylum they’d been to.

“Yeah. McSwinton wasn’t exactly the most well behaved of the patients at Aikmann Asylum,” Ryan said. “In fact, he was pretty well known for harassing the nurses. Which is not great in and of itself, but one day he managed to get a knife from the kitchen and he brutally killed the two nurses on duty. The other patients, most of whom also had violent backgrounds but were obviously responding better to the asylum’s goal of rehabilitation-”

“Obviously.”

“-turned on him and killed him,” Ryan continued, like he hadn’t been interrupted. “Apparently those two nurses had been favorites among the patients for being kind and allowing a little extra leeway to patients who behaved.”

“That sucks for them,” Shane said, eyebrows raised. “They were trying to be nice or whatever, and they got murdered doing their jobs.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t great for them. Wasn’t great for the asylum either, because afterward there were a lot of investigations and the governor cut their budget until finally they had to shut down. All of the remaining inmates were placed in other asylums, though by that time there were only a couple dozen of them left.”

“Well, sounds like a real cheery place, Ryan,” Shane said with a crooked grin. “Shall we take a look?”

Ryan nodded and together they pulled open the creaking doors of the asylum. It was dark inside, only a little light coming in through the windows even with the sun still up. It had been built before electricity was widely used and never retrofitted, so they’d be using flashlights and night vision cameras even more than usual.

“Creepy looking,” Shane noted, and Ryan couldn’t help but agree. Even aside from the hauntings that they’d get to talking about soon, the place was not inviting in the least.

“Yeah, I guess they really didn’t care how being in such a creepy shithole could make people feel worse,” Ryan said as they walked down the hallway, passing small, dingy rooms where patients used to live. “They probably didn’t really know, either, but still.”

“I can see how someone might go a little homicidal being stuck here, even if they weren’t to start with.”

Ryan hummed in agreement, and they continued walking. Their footsteps echoed in the almost empty space and it made him glad as always that Shane was with him. He loved doing the show and loved filming on location, but there was no way he’d be able to go to locations like this by himself. He was lucky his boyfriend was so willing to go along even though he didn’t believe in any of the stuff they investigated.

At the end of the long hallway, they stepped into a larger room. There were a couple of tables scattered about the space, most of them broken and all of them so dirty Ryan didn’t want to go anywhere near them.

“Here’s the common area, where patients would be allowed to socialize under supervision,” he said, gesturing around the mostly bare room. “This is also where McSwinton killed the nurses and was then killed by the other patients. Most of the reported ghost sightings, especially of McSwinton himself, happen here.”

Shane raised his eyebrows. “I think I’d pick somewhere a little more atmospheric to haunt, but to each their own.”

They continued exploring while Ryan recited some of the accounts of people who had seen McSwinton while at the asylum. From the majority of them, it seemed like McSwinton was a much more physically active ghost than a lot they heard about. There were dozens of accounts of hand shaped bruises and scratches and even a couple of what seemed to be knife wounds.

It made sense considering how violent McSwinton had been in life, but Ryan was really not happy about the idea that a ghost could actually _stab_ someone. That seemed a little much. Hopefully if they got any activity while they were investigating, it would be more on the audio or visual side of things.

“So,” Shane said as they made it around to the upper floor of the asylum, where the even smaller, extra secured rooms used as punishishment for unruly patients were. “Ready to go in by yourself?”

Ryan could already feel himself practically vibrating with tension at the idea of being closed up in one of these tiny, windowless rooms, but he nodded. “Yep. Let’s do this.”

He stepped into the room in front of them and Shane closed the door a moment later, his footsteps soon disappearing down the hall as he went to wait. Quiet descended, making the inky darkness feel even more suffocating than before. Ryan concentrated on his breathing as he blinked, trying to see anything around him.

“Well, here I am. I’m Ryan,” he said into the darkness. “If there’s anyone here who would like to speak to me, I guess… feel free. Let me know you’re here.”

He waited several long moments, ears straining for any noise. There wasn’t anything. Even the muted sounds from outside seemed to have faded away, and Ryan felt his heart beat harder in his chest.

“It’s fine, everything’s fine,” he muttered to himself. He looked down at the green face of his watch. One more minute. He could do this.

“Is there anyone here who wants to talk to me?” he asked again.

As the last word left his mouth, he felt… something. It was like that feeling when someone walks up behind you, like you can feel their presence even before you can see or hear them. He whipped around, almost overbalancing.

“Hello?” he asked, voice cracking a little. “Anyone there?”

He couldn’t see anything, but he still felt like there was someone else there. And it was getting cold, really cold. He usually brushed that sort of thing off during investigations as just naturally occurring cold spots, but this felt different. He’d barely moved and suddenly the air around him was icy. He started to shiver.

“Fuck fuck fuck,” he muttered as he fumbled for his flashlight.

It lit up, almost blindingly bright in the small room, and illuminated the transparent white figure of a man, grinning at him from only two feet away. Ryan barely had time to let out a gasp before the man — the ghost, his brain screamed at him — darted forward, hands reaching for his throat.

⁂

Ryan woke with a start, his throat burning with pain. He tried to lift a hand to it, but found he couldn't move. Which was worrying, especially when he remembered the last thing he'd seen before apparently passing out. Or being knocked out, he wasn’t really sure.

He looked around the dim room, noticing he wasn’t in the same one he’d been in earlier. This was one of the downstairs rooms, maybe. An old oil lamp burned in the corner, bathing the room in pale, flickering light.

Not that he had much attention to spare for that, because the ghost was standing just a few feet away from him. The ghost was holding a wicked looking knife and grinning. Ryan was sure that he was face to face with the ghost of Harbin McSwinton, notorious serial killer. He was fucked.

“What do you want?” Ryan asked, trying to keep his voice from shaking too much. He wasn’t sure that McSwinton would — or could — answer him, but he had to say something.

McSwinton didn’t say anything, just grinned even wider as he took a step forward. The knife in his half translucent hand gleamed dully in the light from the oil lamp. It looked dangerous, more dangerous than anything else Ryan had faced before while exploring a haunted location.

He really honestly hadn’t expected to die via ghost. Maybe he should have.

 _It's just a ghost, so it can't actually hurt me_ , he thought to himself as McSwinton took another step forward. He tried to ignore the many stories of people who visited here emerging with mysterious knife wounds. Fuck, he really didn't want to die.

What he really wanted right now was Shane, and a hysterical bubble of laughter threatened to emerge from his throat at the thought. Shane was the one he could always rely on, both on and off camera. Shane, who didn't even believe in ghosts. Ryan really didn't want the thing that convinced his boyfriend of the existence of ghosts to be his grisly murder.

At least maybe Shane could get a good episode out of it.

That train of thought was unceremoniously cut off as McSwinton closed the space between them. It felt like ice through Ryan’s veins, worse than any ghostly cold spot he could imagine. He gritted his teeth against the discomfort, but that only lasted for a moment as McSwinton slashed at him with the knife, causing him to let out a scream.

McSwinton replied with an eerie laugh, his grin going from creepy to downright maniacal. He slashed a few more times, leaving shallow cuts across Ryan’s chest that burned with pain. He could feel blood welling up and dripping down his shirt.

“Fuck,” Ryan groaned, feeling lightheaded with shock. He kind of hoped he’d pass out again just so it would stop hurting so much.

Suddenly, though, Ryan could hear something else. Or feel something else, he wasn't really sure. It was like a reverberation that shook through his whole body, and for a moment he thought it was just another sign of shock. But McSwinton was starting to look less homicidally ecstatic as he looked at the door on the other side of the room.

The door burst open a moment later, and Ryan had to blink hard to make sure he was really seeing what he thought he was seeing. It was Shane, silhouette in the doorway, but there was something… off about him. It was like the space around him was darker than it should have been, inky and moving like smoke.

Shane took a step forward into the room and the oil lamp gave off just enough light that Ryan could see his face. He looked furious, far more furious than Ryan had ever seen his usually easy going boyfriend look before. More than that, though, his eyes were shiny black.

“What the fuck,” Ryan breathed out, wondering if he was hallucinating from blood loss. He surely hadn’t lost that much blood, but it was the only thing he could think of. This couldn’t be real.

Shane barely looked at him before turning to McSwinton, who looked… Well, the only word for it was terrified. A murderous ghost, terrified. He didn’t have long to remain that way though, because Shane reached out and more darkness swirled up from the ground. It surrounded McSwinton, swirling around him and tightening. McSwinton let out a scream that echoed through the room, making Ryan’s ears ache. And then he was gone as the darkness dissolved away.

Ryan had just enough energy to feel deeply satisfied with the fact that McSwinton had been destroyed with such apparent torture before he passed out once more.

⁂

This time when Ryan woke up, it was slowly and much more naturally. He could hear the sound of the road and a gentle thrum through his body that told him he was in a car. Carefully, still wary, he cracked his eyes open.

He was in the car they’d driven to the asylum in, and Shane was in the driver’s seat. That was an unusual place for Ryan to see his boyfriend, but even more so after whatever had happened back there with McSwinton’s ghost.

A little burble of hysterical laughter fell from his lips before he could stop it. A ghost, a real ghost. And it had tried to kill him. But he’d been saved by Shane, who was apparently not as human as he appeared.

Shane turned toward him, obviously aware now that Ryan had woken up. His eyes were back to normal and there was no dark aura around him anymore, but somehow he still felt… different.

“You feeling ok, buddy?” Shane asked.

Ryan nodded, though his throat and chest still ached. Still, that was better than being dead, which is what he’d honestly assumed he’d be at the moment. “Yeah, I’m good, I guess.”

Silence descended as Ryan tried to figure out exactly what else to say. Shane, for his part, seemed content to just turn back to the road and keep driving without saying anything. Maybe Ryan really had hallucinated it all. Or maybe Shane thought, or hoped, Ryan had just forgotten.

“So,” Ryan finally said once he couldn’t stand the silence anymore, or the way his confused thoughts wouldn’t stop circling his mind. Shane glanced at him, but didn’t reply. “You’re what, a demon?”

There was a moment where Ryan thought Shane would deny it, or maybe just ignore him, but then Shane nodded, a crooked grin twisting up the corner of his mouth. Ryan felt himself deflate a little. That might have been the shock still, but he felt a bit relieved. At least he wasn’t crazy, he supposed. But there were still a lot of questions to be answered.

Suddenly, Ryan frowned. “You’ve been a demon all this time?” he asked. Shane gave a cautious nod, and Ryan let out a frustrated huff. “And you said you didn’t believe in demons or ghosts when all this time you _knew_ they were real! Are real! Ugh, I can’t believe you.”

“Uh, sorry?” Shane asked, starting to look a little bewildered.

“You should be,” Ryan replied grumpily. He crossed his arms over his chest but hissed and dropped them when they brushed against the wounds McSwinton had given him. “Always acting like _I_ was the ridiculous one for believing in them.”

Shane shrugged, smiling. “You are ridiculous. Doesn’t mean you were wrong, though.”

“Ugh, you are the worst.”

They went quiet again, but now the tension from before was gone. Ryan was still having a bit of a hard time believing everything he’d seen, but somehow, it all made a weird kind of sense. Their fans had figured out Shane was a demon quite a while ago, after all, even though it was mostly a joke.

He wondered if this revelation would change anything, for the show or for the two of them. He sort of thought it wouldn’t, not really. Shane seemed to be the same person he’d always been, just a little extra weird. But that had turned out to be good, so he didn’t think he minded.

“Hey, thanks for saving me,” Ryan said softly, reaching out to take Shane’s hand.

Shane gave him a warm smile and squeezed his hand, and it felt just like it always had before for them. “Anytime.”


End file.
